Adolf Fick

Adolf Fick was born August 3, 1829, in Kassel as a son of Friedrich
Fick. As the youngest of altogether nine children, he studied medicine in Marburg
and Berlin, and completed his doctoral work (Tractatus de errore quodam optico
asymmetria bulbi effecto) at 22.

The astigmatism of his eyes caused him to follow this course
of research. As early as 1850, he published a scientific article about muscles.
His favorite subject at that time was already the application and study of the
human body using physical and mathematical laws.

After his doctoral work, he was an assistant with his brother
Franz Ludwig Fick, an anatomy professor in Marburg. He moved to Zurich in 1852
to Carl Ludwig. As a successor of Ludwig, he rose to professor of physiology;
his most valuable scientific year then followed. In 1855, he published a work
about diffusion in the annals of physics and chemistry.

In 1865, he carried out an important experiment, which investigated
the energy source of muscle power. Here, the question arose about materials
which enable muscle activity. Since muscles are made out of protein, it was
thought at that time that proteins would also supply the energy for muscles.
Fick determined the quantity of excreted urea during and after climbing a higher
mountain. However, from this, nitrogen-free carbon compounds resulted as a source
of muscle power, revealing that proteins could not "feed" muscles.

In 1868, he was called to Würzburg as a professor for physiology
where he worked until 1899. He died on August 21, 1901 in Flanders.